Choose It
Students use Choose It strategy when choosing a book that is at their ‘just right’ level. Students are more likely to be able to choose an appropriate text when they know a variety of ways to evaluate it. Students who can effectively choose appropriate texts will be less likely to abandon books they choose and more likely to spend more time in engaged reading (Wutz, Wendick, 2005). For strategies to teach Choose It, teachers need to allow students five to ten minutes to read their books. Have students bring their books to circle time. With students in a circle, discuss the following questions: “What about the book you chose helped you decide to choose it?” “Did you like your book or not? Why?” “Was your book one you want to keep reading? Was it just right? Why or why not?” The next step will be for the students to learn and practice the 5-step strategy for choosing a just right book (see diagram). Primary students need these strategies to be able to decide if a book is at the reading level that suits them. “Reading and writing skills and strategies are taught in the context of “real” reading and writing throughout the school day ….” (Calkins, 2010). This strategy can relate to reading online text when searching for information. This strategy will be useful when looking at websites for information. When browsing, we will teach students to use the Five Finger strategy for readability level of the site. If the site is too difficult then they will be aware to move on. “If a site is right at their readability level then they will be able to extract information that is necessary. "Web literacy is a term for finding, scanning, digesting, and storing Internet information. It is an ability to recognize and assess a wide range of rhetorical situations and an attentiveness to the information conveyed in the source's non textual features" (Sutherland-Smith, 2002).